RSS Feed

200

Seriously, thanks for waiting for this one, i know the delay was unfortunate. 43 weeks between comix is not going to be a thing now, i must state. This was just the combination of a Quite Huge comic and a bunch of other side work and an ongoing heat wave that just goes ahead and drains one’s efficiency at times.

So i’ll see you again soon, and thanks for hanging around for the first 200 comix– it’s been a massive privilege indeed so far, and whatever opportunities i’ve had of late have been thanks to You All and the sharing of my work and the Word of Mouse that’s enabled me to pay the rent via a pencil an increasing number of times lately (be extra nice to anyone from Cracked.com that you run into at the grocery store/bowling alley/drunk tank, because they are The Best).

So cheers anyway, curse the preceding wait, and i’ll see y’all again soon. Them milestone comix, they be big. Apologies way in advance for the ungodly delay that will precede comic #300…

-Wr

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

This entry was posted on July 18, 2012 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Subnormality.

As for the comic, I am always floored. Always. Somehow this one had the sensation of magnetism, of being drawn towards some irresistible conclusion. The lost anomalies were not a monolith, however, and so the seeker was pulled to pieces.

I am assuming he lost time. The weather changed, his bag of evidence disappears, clothes change, new hair style, new glasses style… new anomaly.

I’m going to interpret it as an metaphor for academia wherein the peak experience is ephemeral, it is suddenly missing like anterograde amnesia. An intense and encompassing focus on the curious esoteric minutae in the world has resulted in it.
And suddenly all of that encompassing mystery is behind you, peak experience forgotten, and you are suddenly ready to get out with friends and have a good time again.

“Rewritten” isn’t really the correct way to phrase it, from how I am interpreting the comic.

The anomalies are caused by the simultaneous expression of two iterations of a universe occupying the same “space.” Basically, bits of one universe intrude into bits of another.

The point at which our narrator turned the corner is the time at which the universes stopped interfering with each other, and the narrative piggybacked onto the narrator’s double.

For the more visually inclined: Picture two hallways that run perpendicular to each other. One man is walking down each hallway. One of them is being followed by a camera. Where the hallways intersect, the men run into each other. The camera instead starts following the other man, rather than continue following the first one. That basically what the narrative did.

Or perhaps the professor herself was an anomaly and she ceased to exist in the narrator’s universe when the two universes stopped intersecting, for whatever reason.

Beautiful indeed. This story reminds me of a science fiction story I read a long time ago in which the protagonist finds items in his life disappearing; first trivial items, then more important ones, eventually his car, house, job. The last line reads, “I’m just sitting here having a cup of cof”

But in this case things are appearing too — like the professor herself. And then disappearing. Quantum virtual particles writ large — why not? A great story.

If abnormalities are observable in artifices, and hypothetically observable in nature, couldn’t they be observable in the human body as well?

After all, how often have you woken up with an inexplicable new ache? Or noticed a blemish or pale patch on your skin that you dismiss; after all, it had to be there already, you just never noticed it, right? Right?

I might… it’s hard to tell but to my (biased) eye it looks like a ZX-7. But the sound effect would be different, as the ZX-7 has a motor drive, so it would be “click-whhrrr” instead of just “click”.
Also, this was great. Really excellent.
As a further bit of weirdness, I was reading this one and a professor in my department, a physical chemist who spends much of his time at the local syncotron firing X-rays at soil, came by and regaled me with a story about laying bricks in his backyard to make a walkway and a patio. The bricks came from some buildings that had been demolished, and we pondered the likelyhood of anomolies mixed into his summer project.

Yet another classic to add to the 200-strong anthology. For some reason I am reminded of that facetious definition of the word “expert”: “Someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know absolutely everything about nothing”.

Not gonna lie, I checked the site almost every day waiting for this one and it did not disappoint. I’m hesitating to call this one a comic, since it really reminded me of a short story in graphic novel format. Yes, labels, blah blah, intellectual stuff, blah blah, etc. Point is: loved it, your art is amazing, and if I don’t age at least a year waiting for #300, it will be a nice surprise.🙂

First time commenter here. I’ve been following you since The Inner Dark, and goddamn, I love your comics. This one was fantastic as always, and I sincerely hope you continue your work. The Internet, nay, the world needs more like it.

Reminds me of so many curious instances in my life. For instance, with the recent release of the new movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, I discovered the existance of the movie ‘Batman Begins’. I had perhaps heard the term somewhere, but I am certain I was entirely unaware of its existance, and the day afterward, happened to see it on television for the first time; even though I have seen ‘The Dark Knight’ a few times before. And one winters day where a ice scraper I had used the day before was somehow shorter by about six inches, but otherwise identical.
Part of what I enjoy about these comics is that they help remove the endless cycle of self-doubt brought about by things suddenly existing or never having existed, and another part is the beautiful wording crafted along with the images. I look forward to seeing the results of you keeping up the good work.

Another commenter said that they saw the ending coming. I have to say that I did not. Guessing the ending seems to come from either being unconnected to the part of the story in front of you or the ending being so cliched that you can’t help it. Well, there was more than enough on this narrative’s path to keep me looking at details (not unlike the protagonist) and not guessing ahead and this journey takes you so far afield that you can’t even see cliche with binoculars.
Keep handing out these maps, I’ve got my hiking boots.

I’m here every day to check for new comix, but this is the first time I’ve spoken up… this was everything I could have hoped for out of such a monumental number… in my opinion this is your finest work, and moreover one of the better pieces of fiction I’ve read

Allright, so I’ve read this six or seven times since yesterday, and I’ve JUST noticed in the last reading that the “I” in the title of the comic has a little nudge on it. And I’m freaking out a bit because I’m not sure if it was always there. I mean that I’m freaking out a lot. GODDAMMIT ROWNTREE STOP PLAYING WITH OUR MINDS!!1!

It’s got me thinking, maybe every time we walk into a room and forget why, maybe every time we take a wrong turn on a roundabout and get lost, maybe in an alternate universe that’s the road we intended to take, for reasons unknown to us, because of the different choices we make and maybe vice versa occurs there. Maybe they’re the echoes from a universe next door, and actions that are accidental or out-of-character here could be diliberate or second nature there.

I need to lie down, before my head explodes… Fantastic comic, as usual, really can’t wait for the next 100!

Wow, this is like a cross between PhD the webcomic and Starslip Crisis. And speaking as a just-graduated graduate student who has spent years studying possibly-worthless minutiae under a very terse professor, this one really hit home for me. I read this one extra slowly and was so obsessed with trying to find secret anomalies in the pictures (none found except at the end) that I didn’t see that ending coming!

Jeez. The tone of this reminds me of some of the really good, subtle SCPs from the Foundation. It’s not in your face, but it just noticable and off enough for that little shiver to run down your spine at the implications of it.

I don’t want to be _that_ guy, but since no one else is (or maybe just tend to say the things they’re not assuming)…
*sigh* i’ll say it.

Of all people/projects out there …
you are the only one I’d really encourage to do a ‘kickstarter’.

PS: I lied. Human nature. Sorry.
Truth: Of all projects out there, only you and Order of the Stick should be collecting gazillionmillion bucks through Kickstarter. But since OotS already did that, you’re the last one my list.

What really gets me is going back to that comment near the beginning, when he mentions walking by the building with the cone in, like, 2026 and feeling the odd urge to photograph it. His wording felt so out of place at that point, and gives you shivers later…

Fantastic! Poor professor, she got too close and had to be silenced, along with that meddling kid.
It’s cool to think you could be shunted into a different reality at any moment and not realize it.
I don’t just want a book, I want to wallpaper my house with your comics.

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” – Douglas Adams –

I… love you… just that. Anomalies, subnormalities, paranormalities… you just make them beautiful and meaningful. Take your time. Most of us will wait for you. It’s so definitely worth it. Thanks again, for every single comic you have produced.

This is the most hauntingly beautiful thing I have seen of all your creations. This speaks to me deeper than any conscious thought I have had (I have always let anomalies be innocuous and rarely let them sink into cohesive thought). Thank you.

I am amazed. that drew me in so well. I found myself hunched over my laptop squinting at it like I would a good book. I kept looking at all the houses and things for little oddities. Can’t wait for the next 100 comix to come!

The weirdest thing happened right before I read this comic, and I didn’t even think it was weird until I read it. 5 days ago some friends of mine formed a group on Facebook for a project we’d been planning on doing. For the past week I’ve been assisting with a lot of the logistics involved, so I’d been doing a lot of posting and commenting and been receiving a lot of notifications. I was in the middle of a conversation when I got an unrelated notification, and when I tried to go back to the group, the page that I was already on would just redirect back to itself. I checked my notifications, and every single one from the group was missing, as though the group had never existed.

yeah something weird happened to me too. i just came home i usually leave my money in a jar( yes a jar) and keep it where nobody knows. i place at least $200 in there then closed it. i was alone at the time after that i was still in the same room with the jar i was reading the comic on my computer. Then after i finished reading the comic i then took a look at the jar the $200 was gone it was the strangest thing to ever happen to me now i am here contemplating about what happened that time.

Sense I discovered virus comics last year all you do is amaze and astound me. Whether its comedy, a tragity, or a simple short story they always leave me with a chill of thought running down my spine. Thank you so much for this one and I look forward to the next.

Did you intend for the professor’s office to intersect with the stairwell in an impossible way? It seems like the ceiling of the office should be sloped because of the stairs right above it, but it’s perfectly square and normal…

In my life there has been one very realistic anomaly moment, where I felt like I suddenly popped into a parallel universe, as if reality had abruptly changed around me. Turned out I had misunderstood something of large significance earlier and it never occurred to me before.
Now I have to wonder: How did the protagonist gain temporary ripple-effect proof memory in the presence of the professor, and how did she possess that kind of memory? Also: Who else noticed that the trashcan changed before the ripple effect caught up to the protagonist?

OK. You have now officially outdone yourself. I love it!
And yeah. My house – the one room doesn’t make sense – it turns out the builder had had the map upside down when he built it. That’s what you get if you pay a guy in beer – not kidding, the origial owner was cheap.

As someone who has had two different incidents of CDs (listened to for years) suddenly develop new songs after someone else mentioned the song as being a good one by that artist – thanks. Reality can mess with your head, or is that the other way around?

Not-notch stuff. Again! The line “Only with the advent of structure could deviations be spotted. Only with the creation of uniformity could anomalies even be theorized” made me think of the anomalies which are likely to arise in our current highly-structured world.

So… he spent 4 years in an alternate universe and then suddenly popped into another? I can’t tell what I was supposed to get. Were the anomaly gods mad at him for trying to learn their ways? did the all nighter do it to him?

It had some definite hints of House of Leaves in it, and I’m pleased to see others in the comments felt that too. The spookiness of things being *out of place*, and in particular the relation to architecture. I highly reccomend [sic] that you read it.

And speaking of which, GOD! Friggin’ “recommend”! I loved seeing that used as an example, because at one time in my life I was CONVINCED that it was “reccomend”. That was one of those instances when I’ve felt suspicious that maybe it DID change, and maybe it wasn’t just my misremembering…

I also loved seeing “clothes” with “cloths” scratched out on the box: another great little subtle detail. Reminded me of “months”, another word which, one day some time ago, felt to me so much like it had suddenly changed from “monthes”.

The “anomaly indicating a change” concept is reminiscent of “deja vu indicating a glitch in The Matrix”, from the film of the same name. (Caused by the machines changing something unnaturally.) I would guess it’s not coincidence that you chose to feature Neo on the 1999 calendar; but if it is, it’s an awesome coincidence.😉 The Fight Club poster (or is it a plaque?) kinda works as a reference too, although that one seems more like it may have been added just for color or to reinforce the time period.

Overall, I’m also left thinking of Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem’s short stories.

Well, you did it, you made me cry again, when he turns the corner and the door isn’t there; I frose and made a short gasp, I was dumbfounded. I was glued to this not only because I’m a trained architect and the discussion of the little details that appear after age has changed the vision of the design.(though I have never seen the thing between steps) The character and feelings of this guy match me very closely as well. The turning down of party pussy, the focus on ‘unseen’ knowledge. I just finished school and the feeling of moving forward is close to unbearable sometimes. Our art has given me understanding only a science lecture or thick book could match. Well Done!!

The ending made me think of the John Cheever book “The Swimmer” (later a film Starring Burt Lancaster.) Not all of it, but the ambiguous passage of time, the gradually shifting reality, and the (tragically?) unresolved plot line brought up strong memories of a great book/movie. I think that’s why I related to this comic so much. Cheers Winston, outstanding comic the best in the business.

After finishing this, I looked up at the room around me and was shocked it still looked the same. It felt like something should have changed – not just because of the them of the comic, but because something in me changed when I read it. I haven’t had a comic-hangover like this since The Last Stand. You’re a rare kind of awesome. I beg you, please keep on with your work. The world needs it.

Am I the only one who thought that the ending was kind of a cop-out? I was hoping that the anomalies would lead to a different discovery than the exhausted parallel universes / crossing timelines; this one seemed American Beauty-esque “plastic bags are so pretty in the breeze.”

Ambiguous endings are what you make of them. Do you really think the story was just about esoteric SF topics like parallel universes and such? Look over Winston’s past work–he’s all about what makes us human. This story is no different. Compared to his previous work, this one actually reminds me, thematically, of #194, “Between Stops”.

I agree, it’s a lot deeper than “just science fiction.” I just felt that’s he’s executed his themes better in his past stuff. I have to say, the fact that we can discuss and reference to previous works means that he’s a growing, talented storycrafter. I’m just being that overly critical reader😛

there is a term that describes the act of nearly being able to grasp the tail of some huge beast holding up the world. like inside your head is a grenade and you are tugging at the pin. but, every time you try to pull it out you realize there is no grenade. but there is a grenade in your head and you are tugging at the pen. something that is incognizable and inarticulable yet primally fundamental to existence. There was a time that I knew the word for that.

I love how this is a SF story with no overt SF elements until the end. I read it as about people with a sideways look at life. It reminds me a bit of the film Pi, but I feel it one-ups that film on an imaginative level.

The strip works really well as a metaphor for intellectual obsession, and the cult of special knowledge in the academia – and the bittersweet feeling of leaving that behind.

It’s told with many naturalistic details that ring true with grad students. It’s drawn in a crisp, comparatively direct style that I could see appealing to many mainstream readers. And it’s a story that derives its best dramatic effects through the specific combination of words and pictures – in fact, it’s a story that could only be told in comics form.

Maybe the professor is with the Museum of the Theoretical now, possibly having been brought back from a long sabbatical. Maybe our narrator will have the opportunity to visit in the future, and meet the anomaly researcher that he could have been.

Or maybe there is a gnostic heaven here, the prof just made the grade for ascension, and the whole “Left Behind” scenario is handled with a lot more seamlessness and panache, and a lot fewer abandoned clothes… or offices… or temporal relationships.

Well. Sir, you have done it again, I hit the button in the left corner of my browser, recognised the tone of the comic. turned on and edited version of the silent hill 2 soundtrack and got to reading, about ten to twenty minutes later, looked up and I swear that the pattern on my lamp was the opposite direction before I started. This is in my opinion one of the greatest short stories

Three more things
1) the monthly waits are fine
2) definitely read HoL
3) happy 200th, see you in 2021 for #300

I love your comix. I can’t help but think, though , that they’d be better represented on paper, perhaps in an over-sized coffee-table style book, where I could open it and pore over it without having to scroll a web page. They bear repeated viewing, reading, and poring over, and I prefer to do that with a real, hold-it-in-your-hands book. This story left me going… wait, WTF. I reread the last half again, and then I swore a few more times, and then clicked on the comments. Glad to see I’m not alone in my feelings. Which I’m not really sure what they are, to be honest, but I see some others feel the same.

First the praise. This is a fine story, and you should be proud of it. Next, the amusing bit; I think what a person gets out of this story says something about what they are. Several comments have been about how it was touching, others how it was mind blowing, or a metaphor for this or that.
Myself, I view it as a horror story. Lovecraftian at its best. There are things that slip us by, not because they do not exist, but because deep down we know they should not. This is the story of a man who followed someone who didn’t know when to stop looking. Eventually, she was lost. He was lucky, he merely lost a part of his mind.
Looking forward to more of your work. And more sphinx, of course.

Are there things that should not exist? But in any case, there are always myriad things that slip past us. Infinity in a grain of sand, eternity in an hour, blowing by on the wind. The Sphinx could tell you.

In line with anomalous experiences, I had one several years ago when Borders still existed once upon a time. I was beginning to get into Mel Brooks films, and at Borders had a collection of Mel Brooks films displayed upfront. I noted the titles, particularly History of the World Part I. Right next to that Dvd was, I solemnly swear, History of the World Parts 2 and 3, with different dvd cover designs and everything….I made a mental note to look them up in the library later, where I could get borrow dvds for free, only to find out there there was no such thing as History of the World parts 2 and 3 and that Mel Brooks liked to give misleading titles for sequels. I later surmised I was just imagining things, but I really have a vivid memory of what I saw.

I just had to comment and say this comic was absolutely beautiful on so many levels, and I’ll be staring at buildings a little too hard for awhile now! You have this incredible knack for exploring vast ideas while keeping a narrative very personal, immediate, and grounded. I especially loved the professor’s theory that anomalies could only be noticed once civilization developed. There’s something mind-boggling about the idea of a strange and inexplicable frontier hidden in the mundane. I’m not sure a word exists for the emotion this comic inspired in me – then again, maybe one will tomorrow!

This is the best comic you’ve made so far! I never comment but I was so in awe that I had to say something! Glad you have a place where I can tell you what fantastic work you’re doing. Please continue making interesting, thought-provoking comics. And thank you!

By the end of this strip all I could manage to think of was… wow. This is truly one of the most mind-bending strips you’ve made! This’ll have me thinking for a while, and I thank you for that and congratulations on your 200th comic!
May you make many more!

This comic brought back memories, of when I would sometimes walk and notice something, and wonder if it had suddenly appeared or if a plug had been in the wall before and was just gone… I would totally forget and I would have this feeling that something odd had happened.

Anyway, I could relate somewhat to this comic… and it was very touching, and for me, very, very sad. There was one commenter, I forget who, who talked about intellectual obsession and the “bittersweet” feeling of letting it go. Whoever wrote that comment pretty much summed up what I felt. I was so sad that everything seemed to be just gone, and yet maybe the guy was better off moving on.

I really loved it. I love your work and the stories woven into the comics, and I will definitely be rereading this one over and over and over again.🙂

Long-time reader, first time commenter. Been watching Subnormality since the Atheist Apocalypse days, and you’ve gotten better slowly to the point breaking through into something truly amazing here. It feels like it shouldn’t be just a webcomic, but is worthy of being made into a fine short book, like one chapter per page.

I can’t help but look around my house… and the other houses, checking every corner or line for some box or triangle that just doesn’t belong. I can’t look at the trees the same way… how do I know each leaf or knot in the wood grew into place? No one’s filming their growth all the time.

I’ve been in the right place at the right time to see some subtle, wierd things, small objects appearing and disappearing before my eyes. I’ve had things I need for my classes, like my flash sticks and notebooks, go missing but turn up exactly where I left them. Where were they when I stuck my hand down where I left them and came up with only bare table or empty backpack? I’m really not sure anymore the laws of physics are as solid as people think they are… and this plays right into that.

There’s too many horror stories that rely on shock and gore instead of the intellect, subtle ones like this that mess with your head and stay with you. And the way your comic has been everything from lighthearted to philosophical, I never saw the twist coming, way to bank on the style of your previous work.

I think you’ve got this comic’s evolution on a good path. Keep this up and I can see it being printed and cherished someday.

And thanks for making my life a little brighter every… once in a while.

Hey, I drift back here every now and then to go through the fresh archives. Today I came back and just started flipping through the most recent ones, and this was positively amazing.

The art was its usual stellar quality, but the narrative absolutely gripped me. Empathic, real characters we could easily identify with, an interesting plot around what I’m sure is a universal feeling, an ending I was logically expecting but not quite in that way. I really felt invested in this, and when I had to run to the store, I was sad to find out it wouldn’t load on my iphone browser.

It’s odd, given the way it ends with an almost sinister ambiguity, but I really felt like the world made a little more sense after I read it, felt a little smaller, and I felt a little less alone. Obviously, not because it actually explains the way the world works, but I honestly feel comforted in the way I imagine a myth would back when oral tradition was the rage.

I can’t say the fact that it took 43 weeks since the last one affected me, but if it had, it would have been absolutely worth it. Seriously, when are you going to come out with a book?

It’s funny, but in the last shot of the courtyard, as he’s riding away on his bike—there’s an anomaly. A little square of wood that’s sitting there collecting snow, and wasn’t there just five panels up. Odd, that wherever the narrator is now, the anomalies have followed him…just not the same ones.

Wow, wonderful.
Reminds me a bit of Captain Estar Goes To Heaven. (spoiler) It’s interesting to me that when Estar finds herself inside a different story, her history – an ugly, violent one compared to that of this comic’s protagonist, and one of a life she mostly seems to stumble through with a relative lack of control – are so strong inside her she simply changes her life back, while the protagonist of this story spends four years devoted to studying these anomalies and yet, when they affect him in a life-changing manner, he simply seems to adapt and move on.

Wow! Interesting. A graphic short story, and a good one at that. I’ll now be looking out for building anomalies.
Also reminds me of the 3 1/2 floor stairway in one of the buildings in my University. it’s 3 1/2 floors because there is a wall across half of the stair that would otherwise mark 1/2 way to a 4th floor. I recently discovered that a second stairwell in that building also has 3 1/2 floors.
Haven’t yet been able to find out why it exists, but given that there is also an extensive network of full head height underground tunnels, and possibly a fallout shelter, there could be any number of reasons.

Thank you, this is one of the most viscerally terrifying things I’ve experienced since the Dr Who episode Blink (which considering I live in Cardiff where it was filmed was nightmare inducing)! I’ve always thought the best creative things should move you and this definitely did that. I’ve always loved Subnormality but this is possibly the best so far.

How do I view the comic? I just get the text “Image loading..” where it usually shows up. There’s usually an ellipsis (three dots) with a message like that, so maybe the two dots means something important?

There are days I pray to God, asking for God to relieve the suffering in the world. Then I think to myself, what if God can reach back in time to reduce past suffering? I know that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. 6 million is the number. It’s always been the number. Hasn’t it? If God could reach back and manipulate that number, how would anyone know? We wouldn’t. And that’s why I love this comic.

It’s hard to express. Basically, this comic touched on the idea that the past is malleable, that reality is malleable, and that we would never be able to notice if any changes were made since we would be part of what would be changed.

It is indeed a very powerful concept. Slight leap: for me one of the darkest Dr Who episodes was the one where if a particular thing happened to you then you had simply never existed; your travelling companions would never mourn you or spare a second considering your loss. It was a very heavy subject for what is essentially a kids TV show.

God, being omnipotent, could create infinitely many universes, each different from every other. And, if he, she, it, or they chose, could cross their timelines now and then (as well as cause them to branch or merge here and there / now and then). How, indeed, could God resist such an exercise of creative power? And yet — still alone in frightful solitude.

Linked here from Reddit. (I think the comment that caused this comic to be brought up is linked in my name)

I got serious chills at that scene of the empty hall. That was… really intense. I saw this page and thought it would be just one quick comic, like an XKCD or something. When I saw it went on, I almost stopped reading, but instead I hung in there. Glad I did! Wow!

Thought this was great and so did my subconscious mind since I dreamt the sequel comic last night. The point that got me going was the fact that the comic was written in the future about the past. He was referring to his past when he first met the strange teacher. We don’t yet know when this was but further on in the comic we realise he is certainly over 45 when he is retelling this story (he notes that he revisits a site where they find an anomaly and he was 45?). So, the ending shows the world has changed but remember, this is being told from the future….

My dream carried on the story, he met up with some new friends and lived a normal life but he continued his obsession with anomalies, not understanding why he was fixated on them. This eventually led him to form a group of similar aged friends who started to unwind the same ravelled secret behind the anomalies…. My hope is that there is another comic coming out about this soon. It isn’t over is it?

I stumbled upon this and read through with great intent, formulating my own answers to anomalies, questioning myself to there existence in real life. When he turned that corner at the end, my mind literally jumped. and like others could not think of anything else for minutes. I love how this story explains its definitive idea in the core plot. Going into vast detail about anomalies in buildings playing the reader right into the anomaly of the disappearing professor.
Sincerely
a very happy, yet somewhat confused, reader

A “comic,” eh? Such a permanent and limited description for a great question, a wonderful adventure, and some serious philosophy. Time is NOT linear; nothing is. Everything in the universe is either circular, cyclical, or spherical. Time is no different, and someday soon we’ll discover that. Universes (actually smaller, more personal untis called ‘destinies’) overlap all the time.
As someone who studies, photographs, and documents architectural anomalies in historic structures (www.architecturalvestiges.blogpot.com), I have done the same as the protagonist for years. But I also have experience in the field of CREATING these anomalies. I’ve been in construction for thirty five years and in historic restoration for twenty-seven. Seldom do new or old projects come out as the plans show; architects are notoriously ignorant of actual building practices. Jutting corners, bumps, mislaid bricks, abberant windows, stair stringers appearing in ceiling/wall corners, all are par for the course and hardly anomalies. That they appear overnight because of an ever-changing/overlapping world/destinies is an interesting possibility, but I’ve never actually seen it. As to the disappearing professor, it was not an anomaly; it was inevitable as well as expected. Professors like her disappear every day. Our small-minded universities (governments, local communities) get rid of them as often as they can.
My only argument with the story is that the protagonist searched for these things at night. If he had looked for them during the day, he would have seen they are much more common than he imagined.
What a wonderful, beautifully illustrated story. Just right for a dark, rainy Sunday morning in winter.

Today i learned that if you miss out the “s” in a “blogspot.com” address it sneakily directs you to some sort of ultrareligious crazysite (presumably jesus was all for this kind of deception). This would be the commenter’s actual blog for anyone curious: http://www.architecturalvestiges.blogspot.com

Thanks for the correction, Winston. I thought I’d proofread it well, but it’s funny how those words and phrases we know so well are the ones we miss. Me, anyway. Blogpot? Sounds like a site for future growers of the newest ‘legal’ euphoric in Colorado…

Hey, I didn’t realize it until just now, but there is a relatively short manga by Kaneko Atsushi called “Soil” that actually treats very similar material to this. As a bonus, the story takes on a stronger critique of conformity in Japanese society (juxtaposed with model suburban developments which they learned from the USA). It’s scanlated and aggregated online, so English and Japanese speakers can get a look.

Not sure about architecture, but I once had a spray painting project that I left to dry. When I came back, a cheap metal washer was missing, but not the ring of paint outlining it on newspaper. Days later I found it in the same place it would have been if I had not removed the paper. This happened in a locked room, while I was alone (as far as I know).

Oh and first time commenter, started reading Subnormality in October 2011 and really like it. 🙂

200 isn’t so weird if one realizes that we genuinely “live in the matrix,” and that the world isn’t anything like we think it is. The real trick is to harness the effect. Make Murphy’s Law run backwards, and always get good parking places.

At least one toe in the cosmic flow: pointing two fans at each other does do something interesting. Well, not fans exactly. Spinning flat disks. A spinning disk makes a great terminus for a low-pressure vortex core, and a pair of them create a stable laminar “vortex bottle” effect.

Re-reading this a while later – did the Professer herself cease to exist the second she understood the anomaly? That would explain why the other guy suddenly changed into to a version of himself that never met her, and it’s possible the anomaly is only caused by someone fully understanding it in the first place, whereupon they vanish, leaving anomalies, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

The fourth image down was used in the something awful competition that created the urban legend of Slender Man. This is common knowledge, or should be…
While it’s true that Photoshop did not exist when some of these images were originally taken there is a long history of photo manipulation to create “ghosts” the Christmas one reminds me of one of those that were popular during the beginning of the spiritualist movement. There are various groups on Flickr that have images such as this that were created using a variety of developing manipulation or splicing multiple images together when processing. They are quite interesting, I suggest looking into them if you like that kind of thing.
Sorry though, but the addition of the Slender Man image as well as one from creepypasta somewhat leads to the BS factor on this one for me.

My gosh, you are an amazing story teller. I just read Anomalies and it blew me away. i love the ssurreal feel in your longer comics. Makes you sit back for a few minutes to mistrustfully eye the reality around you. Awesome

John Doe above finally touched on what I felt to be the crux of the story. It was in Ch 9, when the professor whispers, “It is possible that the anomalies represent the rearrangement of matter after some kind of transitional event.”
So, her *transitional event* was her reaching some understanding of the pattern of anomalies, which led to her “rearrangement” (disappearance/timeline shift? we don’t see her new arrangement in the comic).
This event in turn leads to his *transitional event* – turning that familiar corner and finding a water fountain where her office had been, which then causes his “rearrangement.”
In other words, reaching the truth changes the truth. That’s not quite right, but it fits nicely with what I understand physicists experience when they try to measure subatomic particles.
And yes, he saved her voice message, but I would wager that, when he returns to his flat (probably a different flat, maybe even with a kitchen and a significant other), there’s no message from the professor on the tape (like everything else connected with the professor, it’s gone / was never there).
Oh and thanks, other readers (just ordered “House of Leaves” from the library).
I can’t remember when I first found Subnormality – I guess my own timeline may have shifted a few times since. I do know it wasn’t very long after my mom’s “rearrangement” (aka death) in late 2006 and our wedding in Spring 2007 (another rearrangement for sure).
And, despite my mostly-consistent attention, I often discover “new” Subnormality comics that I never saw. #200 is one of those (it seems recursive (anomalous?), I know; but – not making this up).
WR, it seems that most folks assume you’re a guy, and maybe you are, but I’m going to continue to assume you’re a gal. Not that it really matters; as we all know, there are far more similarities between the sexes than differences.😉

I like the anomaly in the block where the snow appears. It seems like the protagonist is going out with a new couple of people to search for anomalies and is perhaps the new professor now since 5% of people will detect them on their own anyway and it seems like the professor has ceased to exist when everything goes from orange to red-orange. Maybe he will make the same discovery and transition. Pretty cool!

The fourth image down was used in the something awful competition that created the urban legend of Slender Man. This is common knowledge, or should be…
While it’s true that Photoshop did not exist when some of these images were originally taken there is a long history of photo manipulation to create “ghosts” the Christmas one reminds me of one of those that were popular during the beginning of the spiritualist movement. There are various groups on Flickr that have images such as this that were created using a variety of developing manipulation or splicing multiple images together when processing. They are quite interesting, I suggest looking into them if you like that kind of thing.
Sorry though, but the addition of the Slender Man image as well as one from creepypasta somewhat leads to the BS factor on this one for me.